They have jobs , but no homes. Inside America's unseen homelessness crisis.

Each one of these stories you just have to assume they made the worst possible decisions to get where they are.

"I work 50 hours a week, and it's still really hard to keep up," said Aaron Reed, 22, who makes $21 an hour at an Amazon warehouse near Nashville, and returns to his mother's Hyundai SUV to sleep. He shares the back seat with their black Lab, Stella, while his mom sleeps up front.

Plus, everything costs more when you're homeless, said Reed, the Amazon warehouse worker. He and his mother spend $50 a day to fill the gas tank, so they can leave the air conditioner running overnight in 99-degree weather. There's no way to cook, so they eat prepackaged foods or takeout for every meal. And without access to running water, they spend about $80 a month on large jugs of bottled water they keep in the trunk.

The pair have been homeless since October, when Reed's mother was hospitalized for covid and lost her job at a department store beauty counter, forcing them out of the extended-stay hotel where they'd been living for seven months.

This guy is making around $54k gross (more really, not bothering to calc the OT) and his mom I guess doesn't work at all so the obvious choice is spending $50 a day on gas and eating out every meal. And they were living in an extended stay before this. I'm going to assume meth/drugs is involved in this one.

Deborah Bower, a dog groomer in San Ramon, Calif., has been homeless since October, after breast cancer treatments wiped out $100,000 of her savings. These days she either sleeps in her small SUV, which she parks in a movie theater parking lot, or in $95-a-night hotel rooms, where she often brings along her own dog, Bean, as well as others she's watching overnight for clients.

Who knows what's going on with her but I'm going to assume California has something that would cause her not to spend $100k on breast cancer treatments.

Marie, a hotel and casino supervisor in Biloxi, Miss., who is being identified by her middle name because she fears losing her job, said her family was making do until their van's transmission went out late last year. By the time they paid for repairs, they'd run out of money for rent, forcing them to leave their two-bedroom apartment for a patchwork of temporary arrangements. These days, she makes $900 every two weeks - and spends $710 of that on a hotel room she shares with her husband and 84-year-old father-in-law, who are both disabled. To save on gas, she takes a 90-minute bus ride to work instead of making the 20-minute drive herself.

"I am blessed to make $15 an hour but the cost of living is high, and $15 an hour barely covers rent and utilities," said, Marie, 28. "With everything going up … we cannot save to even get a place to rent."

It sucks being dragged down by two invalids and living in Mississippi but if taking the bus was an option in the first place don't waste all your money on a stupid van.

Nelfreed McKay, 34, was spending about $1,200 a month, or nearly his entire monthly income, on rent before it got to be too much. Since May, he's been sleeping in Central Park each night after finishing his shift as a server at a Manhattan bakery.

McKay, who makes $18.50 an hour, plus tips, is hoping to save up $5,000 by September so he can cover rent and deposits on a permanent room. He works overtime when he can and has been forgoing meals to save up. "There are times when you get so tired of it. You want to snack on something but it's like, 'No, I can't afford that right now.' I need to save up this money for what I really want: to sleep in a bed again."

Work more than 20 hours a week.

All said they were working toward saving enough to cover first and last month's rent, plus a security deposit

This blurb does get mentioned and first + last + security deposit is a scam but it's a reaction to terrible tenant laws in the municipality mainly.